Chapter Five
It felt like it'd taken her forever to sort through the food to put on the fire, but once she was done, she'd placed them beside their bags. Then she'd taken out all the food which they'd stored inside plastic tubs, putting them with the rest. After doing all that, Cybil realized that Jonathan was taking a while just to collect some wood for the fire. She understood that he may have ventured a little further, but even so, he wouldn't take this long. Surely?
With curiosity getting the best of her, Cybil stood up, leaving their stuff behind as they'd be back in a second, and sauntered in the direction that he'd taken. She didn't need to walk far to see Jonathan in the distance, creeping toward a bush as though he was about to jump on it.
She decided to watch him make a fool of himself, hiding behind one of the trees standing proudly beside her. Taking a peek, she could see that he'd found nothing behind the bush he'd pounced on, and was returning to the heap of sticks he'd been collecting for the fire.
However, she'd turned away for just a moment to lean from one foot to the other, and found that something was wrong with the picture that Jonathan was in.
It seemed, from out of nowhere, another guy had appeared before him. He was tall, literally towering over Jonathan, muscular, and wore some real funky clothes. She gasped in disgust at what his face looked like. It reminded her of Quasimodo from those Hunchback of Notre Dame movies, but he was a helluva lot uglier.
Yet, what happened next she would never have comprehended.
The huge guy grabbed Jonathan by the shoulder in a power grip, and used his free hand to pull out an arrow from the quiver on his back. Before Jonathan could've defended himself, the guy killed him swiftly by impaling the arrow up through his chin, Cybil seeing blood spray everywhere.
The macabre scene caused her to step out of her hiding spot, and she screamed. The act, of course, drew the killer's attention to her, and Cybil, still screaming, had no choice, but to run. Back the way she came.
As she was running back to their bags, hoping to find something to defend herself with, all Cybil kept thinking about was blaming herself for not being able to help him. Help the man who she'd loved since the first time they'd met, and who she'd been married to for what felt like forever. Now, he was lying on his back, lifeless, and with an arrow speared through his head.
You can't help him now! You have to help yourself get out of here alive! Her inner voice screamed at her as she found nothing in Jonathan's bag. Not even a small firearm to scare away curious wildlife that might cause them harm. Fishing through her own, she suddenly remembered that she'd put Jon's Swiss Army Knife into one of the side pockets, and smiled when she found it exactly where she'd put it.
Now run! Run, don't stop, and whatever you do…don't…look…back! Her voice commanded, her brain following, getting her to stand, but her curiosity got the best of her, and she turned to see if he was still coming.
He was. Walking fast, with another arrow gripped tightly in his fist, heading straight for her!
She shrieked, forcing herself up onto her feet, and continued on running in the opposite direction, the knife she'd found held tightly in her hand. She knew if she kept running in this direction, she'd eventually reach the car, and then she was off to the nearest police station.
Problem was, was she heading in the right direction? Or was she going in a completely different direction? She didn't really care at the minute. If she just kept moving forward, she was bound to find someone or something to help her.
She pushed herself past branches that seemed to have a mind of its own, clawing and scratching at her fair skin, and vaulted over thick trunks that were covered in moss from recent rainfall. She could see their car parked in the distance, its red coat beckoning to her like a beacon.
Almost there! She repeated to herself, almost like a mantra, sprinting as fast as her legs could go, the SAK still tightly gripped in her hand.
"Hunh!" She wheezed suddenly, slowing down to a halt, as though something had taken her breath away. When she looked down, she could see what the problem was. There was an arrow sticking through her stomach which caused her to cough up a little. She slowly turned her head around slowly, and saw him in the distance with a bow in his hand, ready to grab another arrow.
Why didn't he just kill her straight away? He did so with Jonathan, unless…
"Oh…my…god," she gasped, urging her body to move again, knowing that if he reached her, he was going to do worse to her than he'd done to her beloved Jonathan. Using the passing trees for leverage, Cybil stumbled along, seeing that their car was closer than she'd originally thought.
"Hunh!" This time she felt another arrow penetrate her body, falling down on all fours, she could see that it was sticking through her left shoulder. She spat out more blood, letting out a groan as she looked over her shoulder again as it pained her to do so, catching sight of him steadily making his way over toward her, discarding his bow and arrow in the thicket to collect later.
Crawling now, she was literally fighting with her body to shift it, only a few metres away from the car. She reached out for the door handle, using it to lift herself up, and saw her attacker's reflection in the car window, enabling her to dodge in time when he tried to punch her. Probably trying to knock her out.
The force of the punch smashed the window, shards of all shaped and sizes falling onto the front seat and onto the floor between them, Cybil using all of her strength to lift the SAK in her hand, and plunge it straight into the disfigured man's thigh. In retaliation, Jason backhanded her, Cybil feeling like she'd just been hit in the face with a brick as she spun onto her front, unintentionally landing on the arrows, causing her to hiss out in pain as they moved further in.
Her eyes were watering from the sheer pain of it all, coughing up more blood in her endeavour to crawl away.
Jason howled as he pulled the small knife from out of his leg, and threw it away. Scattered around his feet lay pieces of the car window, one a large glass shard, and struggling a little with his injured leg, he bent down to pick it up, gripping it in his hand, the jagged edges cutting his skin, the blood dripping off his hand, dotting the ground beneath him.
"Ppleassee…don't," Cybil exhaled breathlessly, suddenly screaming out when Jason stepped on one of her feet in order to pin her out on the spot.
"AAAAAHHHHH!"
Raising the glass shard over his head, he hesitated for a moment to hear her whispered pleas once more, sweet melodious music to his ears, before plunging it down, slashing the air with its jagged edges until it stuck into Cybil's back, who screamed even louder.
The pain was excruciating. She could feel the life draining quickly from her body as her attacker continued to stab her with such unbelievable rage, she desperately trying to defend herself, but was growing weak fast, her body not able to withstand such extreme duress.
After the ninth or tenth stab, Cybil had stopped squirming, screaming even. She lay there on her side, two arrows pierced through her body, and now multiple stab wounds decorated it. As she drew her last breath, a single tear trickled off her nose, the last thing on her mind was the image of her husband smiling back at her, lighting up her whole world with just a simple gesture before she succumbed to total darkness.
Now dead, Jason threw the glass shard away, hearing it smash against something as he bent down and grabbed his latest victim by the ankle, attempting to drag her back to where he'd killed the guy, who was probably her boyfriend or someone to that effect.
Thanks to the impressive strength he'd built over the years, most of it "fixing" up the tunnels underneath the Counsellor Training Centre to his liking and where he'd lived for most of his life, Jason will be able to take both of them back to the barn, where he was currently residing, with relative ease.
The only problem was, now he had to watch that he didn't get caught by the occupants who were now residing in the cabin nearby. He knew how to make himself unknown to others' eyes, but with the two he was now carrying on his shoulders, it could prove to be quite a challenge.
Stomping toward the opening in the woods that lead to said cabin, he took in his surroundings, and luckily found no-one in sight. He thought that they were probably inside by now, unpacking and getting used to the place. Perfect timing to hurry toward the barn before anyone saw him.
Reaching the barn doors, Jason quickly looked behind him to make sure. No shocked looks. No sharp gasps. No high-pitched screams. He was in the clear. All he need do now was hide the bodies in the closet situated in the back of the barn, and find a good hiding place to rest. Give him some time to plan his next move.
To get to the two young women who both eluded him in the past, it would mean getting rid of the others which were no problem, but something like that required finesse. It was incredibly lucky then that he was an expert in that sort of thing…
However, unbeknownst to him, one of the escaped victims he'd been thinking about had happened to look out of the upstairs window when he was entering the barn, but lucky for Jason, she'd only caught sight of the door closing behind him. Not of him holding the two dead campers he'd mercilessly killed just moments before.
